Russia

Tony Rocchi23.01.2024

Historians generally agree that the People’s Will [Народная Воля] suffered a major defeat because it did not overthrow the government after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II on March 1, 1881. At best, the assassination was a Pyrrhic victory because the successful assassination was accomplished at too great a cost for the People’s Will. The […]

Tony Rocchi08.01.2024

One of the darkest chapters in the history of the People’s Will [Народная Воля] was how some narodovol’tsy supported a wave of anti-Jewish pogroms [погромы] in 1881-1882 in the southern and southwestern provinces, now forming part of Ukraine. A pogrom is a mob attack direct against certain categories of people, considered evil alien elements by […]

Tony Rocchi24.12.2023

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The conspiratorial activity of the People’s Will [Народная Воля] gave birth to the conspiratorial activity of the loyalist Sacred Brotherhood [Святая Дружина]. Just as the narodovol’tsy [members of the People’s Will] saw themselves engaged in single combat with the autocracy, the druzhinniki [дружинники, members of the Sacred Brotherhood] saw themselves as engaged in single combat […]

Tony Rocchi17.12.2023

The People’s Will was a political secret society and a revolutionary terrorist conspiracy. Revolutionary Mystification and Deceit Political parties were illegal in Russia until the Revolution of 1905-1907 so the narodovol’tsy had no other choice but to form a secret society. In many ways, the People’s Will, especially its Executive Committee, was the culmination of […]

Tony Rocchi15.12.2023

The terrorists of the People’s Will [Народная Воля] became legends in their own time. Many of their admirers included Russian and foreign writers. Heroes in World Literature Among the foreign writers who admired the narodovol’tsy [members of the People’s Will] were Emile Zola, Victor Hugo, Guy Maupassant, Jules Verne, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle, and […]

Tony Rocchi13.12.2023

The People’s Will [Народная Воля] occupies a special and even honorable place in the history of Russian, European, and world terrorism. A Legendary Terrorist Organization Even historians who usually condemn terrorism often make an exception for the People’s Will. For example, American specialist Walter Laqueur wrote <<Sofiya Perovskaya and Vera Figner are symbols of one […]

Tony Rocchi10.12.2023

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Many trends in terrorism in the Russian Empire foreshadowed trends in European terrorism in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Already during Europe’s <<Era of Dynamite>> from 1870-1914, terrorism in Russia between 1866-1911 was clearly different from terrorism in European countries. Russia and the European <<Era of Dynamite>> The massiveness of terrorism in Russia […]

Tony Rocchi04.12.2023

Before writing the articles on political trials in the Russian Empire and use of administrative orders and extraordinary laws to crush opposition, I must explain my methodology—how I research and write about different subjects in history. Most important is how I define terrorism. In this series we are looking at the how the Russian Empire […]

Tony Rocchi03.12.2023

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Political trials in the Russian Empire turned into battlegrounds between the government and educated society as represented by the political parties and movements. Socialist defendants and their liberal defense lawyers joined combat with prosecutors determined to present the revolutionaries as monsters seeking to destroy Russia. Defendants accused the government of committing crimes against the people […]

Tony Rocchi01.12.2023

Although the Russian government had severe policies against its real and imagined political opponents, it was not a police state. The government did not have the resources or the political will to become a police state. The image of the Russian Empire as a police state was built up from the 1800s by socialists and […]

Russia

The People’s Will: Victory or Defeat?

The People’s Will and Russia’s Jews

One Conspiracy Creates Another Conspiracy

A Super Revolutionary Conspiracy

The Appeal of the People’s Will

The People’s Will — Myths and Realities

Russian Terrorism Foreshadows Terrorism in Europe

What is Terrorism?

Political Crimes in the Russian Empire

The Political Police of the Russian Empire

A Little About Medieval Advertisement

Western Relative of Russia’s Grandpa Frost

Good Bye Viktor Imantovich…

Happy Holidays!